Web-QOE under real-world distractions: Two test cases

Real-world usage of web browsing differs considerably from typically employed laboratory tests on single or multiple page views. Especially when using mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, several sources of distraction are prevalent while browsing. In the mobile scenario, users are exposed to distracting factors like other people, traffic, announcements etc., whereas at home parallel use of TV or radio services might distract the user. To assess the impact due to context and distractions, this paper presents two studies of web browsing Quality of Experience. The studied factors of possible influence on QoE include one specific browsing task, the environment and a dedicated distraction task. The results show that, in contrast to ratings for multimedia sessions containing audio, video or speech, QoE ratings for web browsing are not affected by the considered contexts or distractions. However, it was found that the primary task for the browsing session had a significant influence on the QoE ratings regardless of the environment or distracting task.